There are many water saving devices available on the market. Most are available as both new and retrofit products. The following is just a sample of what is currently on the market.

Dublin City Council does not endorse any product. It is important to seek advice from a professional before fitting any water saving device.

Maintenance of all water saving devices is critical. Water saving devices that are not maintained properly can result in water wastage.

Urinals

Most urinals flush 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. This happens even when there is nobody in the building. A single urinal can waste about 864 litres of water per day or 315,000 litres per year. Which means that over €500 of water may be flushed down the drain needlessly – and that is just for one urinal!

Urinals should only flush when required, which means they should all be fitted with flush controls. There are a variety of flush controls available including infrared and hydraulic controls. With the volume of water saved the flush controls could pay for themselves in less than two years.

Waterless urinals that use no water, other than for daily cleaning are now widely available on the market. Waterless urinals come in three main designs - microbial blocks, oil barrier and mechanical barrier.

Taps

A tap dripping at one drip per second can waste up to 4,500 litres of water per year. Repairing a leaking tap may be as easy as replacing a washer and may only cost a couple of cents. So be sure to repair all leaky taps!

There are a number of water saving devices for taps including:

• Self closing taps (push taps) turn off after a preset period. The user pushes down on the tap head to deliver flow. The tap automatically closes off after a delay period.
• Aerators restrict the flow of water from the tap without reducing water pressure.
• Motion sensor taps, which are activated by infrared controls.

Toilets

Toilet flushing accounts for 43% of water is used in offices and about 33% of all water used in the home.

There are a number of ways to reduce the volume of water used in toilet flushing:

• Cistern displacement devices: older toilets may use more water for flushing than necessary. A cistern insert may reduce the volume of water per flush. The insert works by displacing water (the volume of the immersed object will be equal to the volume of the displaced fluid).
• Dual flush toilets give the user the option of a regular flush or a low flush. They are available in new and retrofit designs. To ensure that they are used properly it is important to raise awareness amongst the users.

It is important to check regularly for leaking toilet cisterns as they can very often go unnoticed.

Cisterns/storage tanks

Checks should be made to ensure that cisterns, whether for storage or flushing, are not overfilling and causing water to run to waste through overflow pipes.

Miscellaneous